The meeting was inaugurated by a welcoming address by the rector of the University of Konstanz, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Rüdiger. During his speech he underlined the close collaboration of the two partner universities and the extension of cooperation in the area of teacher education. Subsequently, the rector of the Thurgau University of Teacher Education Prof. Dr. Priska Sieber introduced the topic of this year’s meeting.

The internationally renowned scientist Prof. Dr. Elsbeth  Stern (ETH Zürich) gave the keynote lecture. During her talk she looked at the topic of inclusion from a point of view of intelligent research. She pointed out that today’s practice of distribution and allocation of pupils to different performance levels is empirically not justified and also contradicts equal opportunity, which is both desired and important.

Different priorities

Afterwards, six practical oriented workshops with different priorities were offered simultaneously. The range extended from intellectual giftedness, cultural diversity to real-life experience reports from high school students. The workshops were headed by specialists from various institutions from Germany and Switzerland. Every workshop was scheduled twice to allow the participants to follow up more than one specific guiding principle of the sophisticated and comprehensive key issue.

Diversity as a task for society as a whole

The final fire-side chat was moderated by Prof. Peter Heiniger, head of the course of studies for the secondary school degree at the Thurgau University of Teacher Education. During this session, the topic was discussed using provocative theories. For example, the statement, that dealing with diversity (inclusive teaching) represents a task for society as a whole and needs extensive support systems, was debated. At the end of the day, it was obvious that the topic of inclusion will also have to be discussed in future.

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